I ran across a site that had a live chat thing installed, so customers could chat with the agent in real time. I found livechat and sitemax, which both seem to be good products.

Question is: Has anybody used these types of products on their Realtor websites? I'm wondering if potential clients would use them, or would they find them anoying. I've been on sites where their customer service people pull you into chat.. which is really anoying. But, I've used them when I have a question.

Anybody have any thoughts? Before I invest in buying one of these services, I'm curious if it is worth it or if would convert any visitors to clients.

Thanks
Rick Burton

www.UtahHomeSeller.com

Yes, we set up our own on one of our sites and found VERY little people actually wanted to talk. We used it on a pretty active site, 700 visitors per day and only had minimal success. Most people ended up logging on while no one was in the room even though we manned it most of the time. Then of course you have the idiots that logon while you are not in the room and leave a bunch of filth. Not reccomended on our part.

Interesting. I sort of thought it may be too intrusive if somebody's just browsing. But, I'd sure like to figure out something to convert browsers on my site to clients.. or give the some call to action to contact me!

Thanks
Rick Burton

www.UtahHomeSales.com

you don't have to invest, there are live chat programs available for free such as Help Center Live

Rick you were prolly thinking about Proggie, a program that has a pop up chat window coming when a visitor enters your site.

Hi Sitetudor,

No, I was looking at software from liveperson, and sitemax which gives the user the option to chat live if they wish. Subnex_rx made a great suggestion for the free software however, which I may look at. But in thinking about it, I don't think I'll add it to the site. It may be a cool feature, but I doubt many would use it. If they want info on a property, they'd probably pickup the phone or email for more info? Any thoughts?

Thanks
Rick Burton

www.UtahHomeSales.com

I wouldn't reccomend live chat.. as I stated we have a very active site and it wasn't of much use. Good luck in your decision.

I tried it myself years ago and did not find it to be of benefit. I have since had several clients try and reomve it after a few months.

It does not seem to be worth the effort

I would have to disagree with what seems to be the consensus so far. While the chats that pull you in are obnoxious and definately a bad idea an optional chat can be very beneficial. Now it might be that the sites I have used it on or placed it on are somewhat different in nature than your site but I have found it very helpful. Even if you only convert a few visitors with it, there is free software out there (as already mentioned)and you can set it up so that its no more of a hassle than a phone call. Just my two cents and I am by no means an expert but just wanted to offer a counter point

Where as offering a Live Chat on a website may make the agency look techically savy, I've found though polling clients /etc, that it may be taking it too far and making the business a bit too impersonal.

Human contact to develop the emotional bond necessary to convert a prospect or up-call to a client is still necessary.

I agree 100%. Unless you are a really bad sales person like many internet people are (seriously) and feel more comfortable behind the screen, I would always recommend to get the visitors on the phone before having any other sort of communication.

If you want to add a live chat, I would only do it in the corner of your contact page.

Just MO.

Mike

What you will find it if you offer chat is: The fact of the matter is that chat should be manned 24 hours a day to be credible. You will find that you will have MANY people loggin in when no one is there and at that point you actually lose a little credability when no one is there. So unless you plan on manning it ALOT, I wouldn't reccomend it, we tried it, for about 2 months and this is what we found. Maybe for a larger company who has enough people to monitor it, it's ok.

But don't they have to enter their email address before they log on so that you have at least a lead to get back with them?

Not necessarily, I think it depends on which script you use. We used a simple free script but was very user friendly. We found with even 3-4 agents trying to monitor the chat room, we usually ended up missing most people. We did a test for 3 months and nothing came of it. Maybe others have had better responses, but it didn't work well for us. If you are willing to sit there and watch the chat room ALL day, it might work better. But if you are not will to make a committment to that, we wouldn't suggest it.
Good luck

Tried it once on our company site, took it off 2 days later.